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Archive for December 1st, 2010

Tony Pua spoke out against Budgetary prejudices against East malaysian states for 2011.

October 18, 2010

Despite the vast contributions Sabah and Sarawak make to the national economy, the federal government’s “petty” allocation of only RM9.55 billion for development projects in the two states is unjustified, opposition parliamentarian Tony Pua says.

The two East Malaysian states are the “biggest losers” the 2011 Budget unveiled last week, the DAP’s Petaling Jaya Utara MP said. See here for a video of Tony’s interview on the issue.

Wednesday December 1, 2010

Protecting orang asli title rights

More and more cases of encroachment onto orang asli lands are coming to light but there are not enough lawyers in the Bar Council’s Legal Aid Centre to act for them.

THE orang asli in West Malaysia are the original orang asal but their lives could not be a more sorry one.

Progress is a double-edged sword and not all attempts for their development have been welcome, especially those that ignore their native customary rights and their ties to the land and those that would cause them to lose their identity.

At a public forum on Oct 9 organised by the Bar Council’s Committee on Orang Asli Rights (COAR) that was attended by about 190 orang asli from throughout the peninsula, there was a deluge of appeals for help.

The election timetables are keeping all interested parties on their tip-toe: latest event to watch is the announced delay of UMNO’s poll by 18 months, which has been read as facilitating the calling of a snap poll -probably in March. If that come to pass there is a likelihood that the Sarawak state poll, due latest by July 2011, could be synchronised. There is a well known attraction for such an option to serve the interests of various parties from both sides of the South China Sea-so its likelihood is on the card.

The timing of the elections may center on the Sarawak’s CM: if the state poll is delayed further it may facilitate nudging out the longest serving CM of Sarawak. Conversely the Sarawak CM is expected to welcome faster state poll with a view to stay on. There is no clarity on which side will have their way yet.